USU Newsletter - Uniformed Services University of the Health ...

CHE Receives Six-Year Accreditation from ANCCCA
By Christine Creenan
Web Writer, Office of External Affairs
The American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on
Accreditation, has recently awarded the Uniformed Services University
of the Health Sciences’ (USU) Office of Continuing Education
for Health Professionals a six-year accreditation for continuing
nursing health education (CHE).
Although the ANCC typically awards only four-year accreditations,
the CHE USU program was able to demonstrate an exemplary
record, and was therefore granted an six-year term.
“The outstanding hard work of the entire office, particularly the
course administration specialists who ensure full compliance with
educational standards, is to be commended,” said Sylvia Scherr,
director of Continuing Education for Health Professions.
USU Preventive Med Docs Identify TB-Test Weaknesses
A recent study led by Army Major James
Mancuso, M.D., MPH, Department of Preventive
Medicine and Biometrics at the
Uniformed Services University of the Health
Sciences (USU), identifies that the tuberculin
skin test (TST) has many sources of error.
The study, titled “Pseudoepidemics of Tuberculin
Skin Test Conversions in the U.S.
Army after Recent Deployments,” will be
published in the first issue for June of the
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical
Care Medicine, a journal of the American
Thoracic Society.
Co-authors Air Force Lt Col Lisa Keep,
M.D., MPH, Department of Preventive Medicine
and Biometrics, USU; and Steven Tobler,
M.D., MPH, Army Medical Surveillance
This news comes on the heels of yet another six-year approval
awarded to the office for AMA PRA Category 1 Credits Continuing
Medical Education for Physicians office by the Accreditation Council
for Continuing Medical Education in 2004. Under the direction
of CAPT Jaime Ann Luke, NC, USN, senior executive director
of the Continuing Health Education directorate, the program provides
resuscitative and trauma education through the Military
Training Network as well as continuing education accreditations
for six professions including: physicians, nurses, social workers,
health care administrators, psychologists and pharmacists, in triservice
education programs.
According to CAPT Luke, “Only a small percentage of providers
ever achieve this exemplary accreditation. It is a testament to the
professionalism and outstanding quality of the nursing educational
activities at USU.”
Activity, along with Dr. Mancuso, have described
eight outbreaks of false-positive TB
tests between 1983 and 2005.
More than a mere institutional inconvenience
or an individual's momentary medical
scare, these false positives have become a
real financial and medical burden by inappropriately
diverting limited funds and resources.
Concerns about TB exposure have been
raised by recent deployments to Iraq and
Afghanistan which are reported to have
among the highest rates of active TB in the
world. However, many service members
do not have sufficient contact with locals to
raise their risk of contracting TB. As a consequence,
"testing after recent deployments
to the endemic and hyperendemic
areas has occasionally resulted in large
numbers of U.S. Army service members
with [positive tests] and massive efforts
aimed at preventing active TB," wrote Dr.
Mancuso.
Because the positive-predictive value of
a test—that is, the likelihood of a positive
result indicating an actual case—is dependent
on the prevalence of disease in a population,
the lower the prevalence of a disease,
and the higher the variability in the
test and testing procedures, the less the
positive-predictive value of a test will be.
"This may dramatically reduce the positive-predictive
value of the test to below 50
percent," said Dr. Mancuso.
Student Profile: LCDR Julie Conrardy, NC, USN
By Christine Creenan
Web Writer, Office of External Affairs
First a ski instructor, then a nanny, now a naval officer in the
Perioperative Clinical Nurse Specialist program at the Uniformed
Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), LCDR Julie Conrardy
is as varied as she is committed to advancing military medicine.
Although a self-proclaimed ‘military brat’, Conrardy’s decision
to join the Navy more than a decade ago was more spontaneous
than planned.
“I was walking in Manhattan and happen to come across a
recruiter’s office,” she said.
That impulse proved to be life changing; Conrardy would soon
find herself in the surgical ward at ports in Bethesda, Lithuania
and Sweden (aboard the USNS Comfort) and Iceland. Her work
as an oncology nurse allowed her to practice medicine across the
globe while dually satisfying her passion for travel.
For the past year, however, she has remained on the grounds
of the National Naval Medical Center, to pursue an advanced degree
from USU’s Graduate School of Nursing. She was drawn to
the school for many reasons, namely because the PCNS program
is the only one of its kind and because the university fosters intensive
interactions.
“I like that the classes are small.
There are only seven of us,” she
said.
Conrardy holds a bachelor’s
degree in communications disorders
and speech science from the
University of Colorado at Boulder
and a Bachelor of Nursing degree
from Pace University in New York.
She admits returning to school
was a difficult transition, calling
the research “hard” but enjoys the
friendships she has developed and
the opportunity to study in a joint
service environment.
Conrardy will graduate in 2009
and begin rotations in Okinawa, Japan.
LCDR Julie Conrardy
NC, USN
GSN Perioperative Clinical
Nurse Specialist Program
“I hope that I am always the patient advocate,” she said of her
role as a member of the Navy Nurse Corps. As she gains seniority,
Conrardy wants also to use her charge to mentor young nurses
embarking on new careers.
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